Month: October 2013

Happy Halloween! The one day you can dress up and it is socially acceptable. With Halloween falling on a week day this year, it was time to ditch the suit and embrace all things hallows eve in work. Seeing as today is #throwbackthursday, here’s a couple of my costumes from previous years, including my costume from Friday when I attended a Halloween night out and what I wore to work today! Halloween 2013- Cat, Geisha and a Bat Girl Halloween 2011- The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Magenta and Columbia Halloween 2010- Harry Potter, Witch, Cat and Bumble Bee

Sometimes its nice to mix things up a little by spending the day in a new place and exploring and yesterday was one of those kinda days. The girls I lived and spent most of my time with at uni hadn’t seen each other, as the four of us, since February and with one of the girls heading of to Japan in two weeks, we knew a catch up was long over due. Living in different parts of the country, I suggested a day in London. Despite the train journey from up North, I love spending time in the Capital as its still such an exciting place to visit with so much to see and do. With time being of the essence, after a lovely catch up in the pub, obvs, we headed to Camden. I’ve never been to Camden, but always wanted to go to the see the infamous Camden Locks sign and the markets. It is such a lively place and didn’t disappoint. I took advantage of my day out and unashamedly acted …

For as long as I can remember I’ve wanted one of the Cambridge Satchel Company bags, but I just couldn’t commit so much money on a single purchase and had no clue what colour to choose. I invested in a Zatchels bag earlier this year, during their 50% off birthday sale, but recently Cambridge Company Satchels have been sneaking into my ASOS saved items more and more. And when I saw this beauty on ASOS for £115, I knew it had to mine . Berry is my favourite colour this season and the satchel will match my fedora and ankle boots perfectly- I can’t wait to give it its first proper outing this weekend. But, before that I just couldn’t resist taking a couple of photos. The leather is so soft and it is fantastic size, despite it being the smaller size at 11″. In a word- its perfect.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, this weekend was my turn to cook in my friends and I versions of ‘Come dine with me’. Being the only one who still lives at home, and in a bid to stop my Ma wondering through to get a brew, my turn was based at my best friends house. I do like to cook and quite regularly make a home cooked meal, but I’ve never cooked for more than 3 people, so 5 was a challenge. How the key was preparation and I decided to stick to what I know- Mexican! The challenge was to a three course meal, so I opted to do a nachos (always a winner), home-made enchiladas which turned out quite well and fruit and chocolate sundaes for desert. I did mean to photograph the cooking process of the enchiladas but manning pans and chopping veg, took priority so these are the couple of snaps I took! Ruth’s Mexican Menu! Nachos loaded with guac, grated cheese and sour cream to start Chicken and bean …

I don’t know what have come over me of late, but this post sees my third foray in the world of outfit posts, and I’m quite enjoying it. However my mother’s photography skills are less than to be desired. You see, the objective of the event is to take outfit photos, but she thinks its an opportunity to have a play on my camera and take pictures of the kitchen,the garden, the dog, basically everything other than what I’m wearing! Sheesh. However, back to the matter at hand. One of the perks of working at Matalan is my staff discount and one of the down-falls is seeing my shopping addiction begin to get a little out of hand. Seeing newness land on the site begins the journey of wanting, no needing that new dress/skirt/top. This month it was these leggings. *Attractive shot of me offering ‘creative direction’ there* Let me just start by saying, I am not a leggings kinda girl. I just don’t think they suit me or flatter my figure. And I just dread …

Sometimes weekend pass you by so quickly without the chance to stop and think, and this weekend was one of them. Most of my weekends are spent in Manchester, but this one bought Friday, Saturday and Sunday being spent in the city. On Friday I went to watch Ellie Goulding at the Apollo. We booked the tickets months ago, but after watching her set at V festival, I wasn’t as impressed as I though, so she had something to prove. Before the gig, we caught the train into the city early to get something to eat and have a few drinks before we headed to the venue. Being quite a foodie, I like to try and always eat somewhere different, so we tried SoLita in the NQ. Described as a ‘South of Little Italy’ the menu was mostly burgers and hot dogs. I decided to go for the fried mac and cheese with pulled pork on top. It was so good and the pork was really sweet. My friend went for the loaded hot dog …

This weekend seemed to pass by in such a blur. Like it states somewhere up there ^^^^, I am lucky enough to work for Matalan within the brand team and this weekend saw us take a selection of lovely, lovely mummy and fashion bloggers to the fabulous Bulgari Hotel in Knightsbridge, London. The day was split into two parts and was such a great day involving two fabulous film screenings in the hotels cinema and us showcasing our new campaign: The Statements. Sadly, I was too busy chatting to take many photos! The day passed by so quickly and soon enough I was back on a train headed North. Sunday I tried and failed at getting Glastonbury tickets-sob, but less said about that one the better! Now, I don’t know how we’ve quite blagged this one , but yesterday was such lovely weather for October and I decided to try my hand at the ole blogger photography. My ugly mug rarely makes an appearance on here, with the sun shining I thought what the hell……. *Maybe …

So with the clocks due to change soon and darker nights setting in a lot earlier, it seems Winter is on its way. Despite it only being the 4th October, our Christmas do at work has already been booked and the thought of finding party dresses is on the agenda! Just how many times have you had to resort to last-minute panic buying a new weekend outfit, ending up with something you’re not entirely happy with but ‘will do’? This year, I plan to do things differently and get ahead of the Christmas party dress prep and ensure I end up with a cracker. I have an image in my head of my perfect outfit and it is inspired by the red carpet goddesses of the 2013 Oscars. Nicole Kidman, Naomi Watts, Stacy Keibler and Halle Berry all wowed in sequin dresses and I plan on doing the exact same. Finding a sequin dress in the run-up to Christmas shouldn’t be a difficult task as the sparkles do come out towards the end of the …

Following on from Monday’s post about my trip to Rome, today’s post continues with our second day in the city. Now, when researching the city before we left, one of the main points of advice was to wear comfortable shoes as there is a lot of walking. That is an understatement. The city has a metro which runs on the outskirts. We stayed in Cornelia which was on the red line, so each day we got the metro into the city and then off we walked. We bought the Roma pass before we went for 3 days which contained entry and fast-track passes to the Coliseum, St Peter’s Basilica, the Sistene Chapel and the 3 day hop on, hop off bus which runs around the city, which was a godsend! However, by walking we got to discover the different parts of the city and quite enjoyed getting lost down the many cobbled streets! I would defo recommend a visit to Rome who is considering it. One of the misconceptions is that the city is expensive. …